Add a cup of cyanide, a pinch of arsenic, and voila!

So there’s this celebrity chef, see, and he said in a magazine article that a plant called henbane makes an excellent addition to summertime meals.

It’s a great cooking tip, so long as you don’t mind hallucinations, convulsions, vomiting and occasionally death. The chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, apologized, explaining that he had confused henbane with another weed, called fat hen.

On his own website, the chef called it “rather an embarrassing mix up,” and said “Henbane is poisonous and you should not consume it in any way.” He added that there had been no reports of any casualties.

But then again, who knows how many families took his advice and have already sat down to a heaping plate of henbane, croutons and a nice vinaigrette, and haven’t been heard from since?

Oh, I use henbane all the time… on a rough winter day in my cassoullet… in the kids’ sippy cups in the evenings (they sleep great, don’t you know?). Is that wrong? Or was I using Fat Hen? Or was it just weed? I’m so confused. I’m going to go relax with some henbane tea.